Hello all,
I'm thinking of purchasing a new PC and I would not mind to invest quite a lot in it in order to get the perfect rig to run this game. Which specs would you recommend for that purpose?
exactly the same for me as for vari
wanna change this junk, got tired of having 20fps (or less) in ofp sometimes
No matter what you buy Var, even OFP can max out the baddest rig today
(guess that is more due to bad coding)
but you should buy a faster CPU instead of more cores (min is dual, but faster dualcore plays ArmAII better than slower quadcores)
I doubt such rig will ever be created. As OL pointed out BIS isn't really good at optimizing their games. So the most important thing here will be to wait for a year until BIS will release patches that will optimize ArmA2 as it suffers from the same things as ArmA1 did (lagging cities, unexplained lags in empty fields with a few trees that is even harder than the ones in cities etc.) on release.
As for a rig for ArmA2 go for something like Core2Duo E8400 or higher and GeForce GTX280 1GB or higher if graphics are really that important for you. As for RAM even 2 GBs are enough for ArmA2 (I've noticed that it usually takes less than 1 GB even on CTI campaign missions) so decide for yourself how much you need. Why such processor and not some Core i7? According to what people report even "slowest" i7s appear to be overkill for ArmA2 as it doesn't take more than 50% of their power and they are also quite overpriced while not giving that much of an additional power for more money. And you can easily overclock E8400 (or higher) to 4 GHz which will be overkill as well. Then again no rig will be lag safe until BIS will optimize the engine at least a bit.
The 50% CPU usage can be explained if the i7 is 64 bit, ArmA2 is still 32 bit afaik (correct me if I'm wrong). For Ram you shouldn't go for less than 3 G (on 32 bit system), if you choose to run 64 bit go for 6 or 8 (Ram is cheap nowadays). My FDF (with our addons) wants 1.2-1.3 G, OS want some too (vista use around 600-800 MB just to run), so it's not much left of 2 GB ram then... (haven't checked FDF on W7 yet but W7 eats RAM too)
(06-07-2009, 11:48 PM)Lenin link Wrote: [ -> ]What do you have now?
AMD Athlon™ 64 bit Processor 2.21 GHz
1 GB of RAM
GFX card ATI RX700 256MB
Windows XP
What operating system should I get, And what is i7?
Thanks
I'm on Win7 and so far I haven't noticed any lag due to the lack of RAM. And I have 2 GBs.
i7 as in Core i7 is a yet another Intel's overpriced processor. Really not worth the cash at this point - it gives you like 20% more performance over Core2Quad with the same power in MHz while costing much more.
As for OS - only depends on your RAM. If you will have more than 3 GBs - go for 64bit OS (which you will most likely do). Win7 Release Candidate is still free and will remain such up until march 2010 so grab it from Microsoft's web-site and test whether it is better yourself (RC1 7100 version). I really don't see much difference in performance or anything else apart from that you can safely alt-tab from ArmA2 and back in 1 second. ArmA2 is also a DX9 game without any DX10 features present in Vista/7.
(06-08-2009, 08:35 AM)MCraze link Wrote: [ -> ]I'm on Win7 and so far I haven't noticed any lag due to the lack of RAM. And I have 2 GBs.
i7 as in Core i7 is a yet another Intel's overpriced processor. Really not worth the cash at this point - it gives you like 20% more performance over Core2Quad with the same power in MHz while costing much more.
As for OS - only depends on your RAM. If you will have more than 3 GBs - go for 64bit OS (which you will most likely do). Win7 Release Candidate is still free and will remain such up until march 2010 so grab it from Microsoft's web-site and test whether it is better yourself (RC1 7100 version). I really don't see much difference in performance or anything else apart from that you can safely alt-tab from ArmA2 and back in 1 second. ArmA2 is also a DX9 game without any DX10 features present in Vista/7.
64bit OS- Which one of the available OS is of that kind?
maybe u need
2 GB ram 2.8 duo or higher or 2.0 quad or higher
nvidia geforce 8600 (u can get it for 50â¬-60â¬) or higher (damn i have 8500gr and its only half power of 8600
)
and some other good things
(06-08-2009, 09:32 AM)Variable link Wrote: [ -> ]64bit OS- Which one of the available OS is of that kind?
There are such versions of more or less recent OS'es
XP 64 bit
Vista 64 bit
Win 7 64 bit
I wouldn't advice you to go for Vista though. Pick Win7 64 bit when you will have more RAM while it is still free for testing, other 64-bit OS'es suitable for ArmA2 don't have "demo versions".
Also when you will order a CPU make sure you'll order a good cooling system because there is no point not to overclock new processors as they are really fit for it - in case you will need additional power.
As MCraze say, try Windows 7. Just download it from M$ and get a key. Remember it's still RC so it can be a bit "buggy", the file search function needs an upgrade
I guess XP-64 ain't available anymore (it's basically W2003 Server) but it's rock stable compared to XP 32. I can run my box for days without restart.
The RAM issue:
A 32 bit OS can't adress more than 4GB but Windows can't find more than 3 so even if you have more ram it won't be found/ used. The limit (in theory) on 64 bit OS is 16 exabytes (or 16.8 million terabytes), guess it's a while before I hit the roof there.
I have 6GB RAM and the only "problem" I use to run into is when I forgot to turn on virtual memory after I run defrag
For the CPU it (according to "The Net") seems you should go for faster dualcore than more cores, I would suggest around 3 GHZ core speed, then you can decide if you want 2, 3 or 4 (or 8 ) cores
I have no good advice for GFX since I switched for nVidia to ATI some months back, it's a pain in "a place" to learn new CP
but your choice of motherboard can be of interest here if you wanna use 2 or more GFX cards.
nVidia's solution is SLI and AMD/ATI's is Crossfire.
Check out some mobos from ASUS, with either nVidia or AMD chipset if you are in for AMD CPU, if you are going for Intel CPU you should go for a mobo with Intel chipset too. I guess it's needless to say, stay miles away from VIA.
[i]EDIT: sorry, forgot, Windows 7 comes with DX 11 too
Thanks a lot for all the advices.
Niothing is needless to say overlord, I know jack shit about hardware stuff
So what is more recommended- AMD or Intel? ATI or NVIDIA?
If you ask me I would go for AMD CPU, mobo from ASUS (with nVidia or AMD chipset, have to check up which) and a single Radeon HD 4850/70 X2 (
[b]here is a comparison guide).
Give me a day and I'll send you a suggestion, I guess all normal hardware is available worldwide these days
(06-08-2009, 01:39 PM)Overlord link Wrote: [ -> ]If you ask me I would go for AMD CPU, mobo from ASUS (with nVidia or AMD chipset, have to check up which) and a single Radeon HD 4850/70 X2 ([b]here is a comparison guide).
Give me a day and I'll send you a suggestion, I guess all normal hardware is available worldwide these days
Thanks! that would be greatly appreciated. I am planning to simply submit your suggestion to the local retailer and ask him to build the PC accordingly